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New find in Katy, TX - Venezuelan!

I've been driving past the gas station at the corner of South Mason and Cinco Ranch Blvd in Katy for a couple of years now. Sure, I noticed the sign on one corner of the building that said, "Deli's Cafe," but I figured that particular "Deli" probably was short for "delicatessen" and, all too often, "delicatessen" is short for "cold sandwiches in a vending machine." So I never bothered to stop in and check it out.

Imagine my surprise when, about a week ago, while waiting at the doctor's office, I struck up a conversation with a woman newly-arrived from Venezuela. While chatting about her overall impressions of Katy, she said something to the effect that Katy's population is very heavily Venezuelan and that she had even found a brand new Spanish preschool to which she was planning on sending her 3-year-old daughter.

I have a 3-year-old granddaughter, so I was interested in this "brand new Spanish preschool," so I asked where it's located.

"It's at that mall on the corner of Mason and Cinco Ranch," she said. "You know, where the Deli's Venezuelan Cafe is."

I didn't know where Deli's Venezuelan Cafe is. But I sure do now.

The place is run by Venezuelans, and it's as authentic Venezuelan cuisine as you can get. Not only is it not "cold sandwiches in a vending machine," it offers just about anything one could want: empanadas, pastelitos, arepas, asados, sopas, tostones, tajadas, tequenones, ensaladas, etc.

And my new very favorite thing: cachapas. Especially the one featuring "queso de mano," homemade cheese. I've never had anything quite like this. It sort of resembles a taco, but the texture of what would be the corn tortilla in a taco is softer, with large pieces of corn, kind of like if a corn tortilla and corn pudding had an illegimate love child. The homemade cheese in the one I ordered was a soft, mild white cheese. I noticed people at several tables pouring a delicious-looking green sauce over their cachapa, so I did the same.

This was easily the best fast-food type of lunch I've had in a very long time.